30 November 2006

2006 Scottish 9-Ball Championships, Kirkcaldy

Hi folks

Sorry I haven't posted for so long. Things have been a little on the crazy-busy side once again, but let's see if I can catch up with the next few posts.

First off, the 2006 Scottish 9-Ball Championships held, once again, at Styx in Kirkcaldy. This is always a fun weekend and now that the visiting of the Irish players has become an annual event, it has become even crazier!

This year, 95 players turned up!!! They included the likes of Wales' 2-time World 8-Ball Champion Rob McKenna and Andy Croasdale – former European 8-Ball Champion as well as the usual Scottish Tour suspects. It was sure to be an enjoyable, if somewhat tough, weekend.

When the draw was made, I ended up with a bye in the first round. Always nice – means I can sit back and relax for a wee while. As it was, I ended up babysitting Ross McInnes’s 6-month old son Preston as his Mummy, Snooker and Pool Referee Michaela Tabb, was in Aberdeen working at the Grand Prix Snooker. I am far from complaining! Preston and I had a great time to ourselves over the 2 days of the tournament walking about the pool hall watching the different things going on. It’s amazing how easily babies can lower themselves to my intellectual level! He was a very content young man over the weekend, only getting a little (very little!) grumpy when he was getting hungry or tired.

As for my playing over the weekend, I had a bit of a nightmare playing-wise, but still did not bad in the tournament. Let me explain. I had a bye in the first round. I had to wait for a while for my next match but not long before it was going to get called, my opponent – one of the Irish players – staggered up to the control table and said that he was forfeiting his match and going to bed as he was drunk. So, without hitting a ball, I get into the third round in the winners bracket! This is where it went kinda pear-shaped. My next opponent was one Pat Holtz – winner of Scotland’s World 9-Ball Championship qualifier and one of Scotland’s top all-round pool players. Pat was 4-0 up before I knew what was going on! All of a sudden I found a gear and got back to 4-2 down and could have made it 4-3 if I hadn’t missed a tough 9-ball. Pat took control of the match from here and won 7-2.

That put me over to the Losers’ Bracket of the chart where I had to wait for other matches to be played before I knew who I was set to play. As it was, I ended up having to play Graham Tough – aka Tookster – one of my closest friends on the tour. I played a few good shots in the match, but nothing that would make it any sort of a match for him and Tookster won 7 racks to 2.

You can find out about how the rest of the tournament went – along with a bunch of pictures that I took when I was there – by going to www.scottish9ball.com.